North Ridgeville Rebound And Beat Amherst To Finish Regular Season Strong, 26-7

Amherst, OH: Following a heartbreaking loss a week ago, the North Ridgeville Rangers rebounded nicely to beat Amherst 26-7 in front of a huge crowd Friday night.

Early on, Amherst got their offense going. Senior QB Cole Norris found junior David Duziak for a 25-yard pass and sophomore Nick Wilkinson for 15 yards. The Comets were in business until what appeared to be a bad exchange between Norris and JR Bires. The football wound up in the hands of North Ridgeville’s Brett Lienerth, who ran the ball 94 yards back the other way for a Ranger touchdown. 

On the next Ranger possession, following two 10-yard penalties, Ranger QB Cole Miller ran 11 yards backward and fumbled the ball, recovered by Amherst’s Brayden Rosebeck, giving the Comets the best starting field position they would get all game. The Comets turned to what they do best: running the football. JR Bires ran the ball 3 times for 9 yards, followed by a Cole Norris conversion on 4th and 1 when he ran the ball for a yard. He then ran the ball once more for 5 yards. The Comets then gave all of that back, as they committed 4 penalties on their next 5 plays. Norris completed a pass to Bires for 13 yards. On 4th down, Norris threw an incompletion, which, if it were completed, would not have counted as Amherst committed yet another penalty. 

North Ridgeville took over at their own 27. The Rangers went on the longest drive of the night for either team. The Rangers’ drive would cover 73 yards over 15 plays. Zackary Barnhart ran the ball 5 times on the drive for 47 yards. On his final run of the drive, he ran 3 yards for a touchdown, giving the Rangers a 14-0 lead. 

Amherst’s offense came to life on their next drive. Norris went five for five on the drive through the air. He threw the ball to Duziak twice for a combined 31 yards. He then threw it once to Tristyn Young for 31 yards and threw a pass 9 yards to Cael Charles to get the Comets on the scoreboard. With the PAT, the Ranger lead was now cut in half.

On the next two Ranger drives, Shaddai Cooper, a Comet., made his mark, first intercepting a Ranger pass from Cole Miller, then recovering a Cole Miller fumble. However, despite the Comets’ defense giving their offense the ball around midfield each time, the Comet offense was not able to capitalize. 

On the second-half kick-off, North Ridgeville kicked the ball to Amherst. The Comets touched the squib kick, but it was the Rangers swarming on top of the football, getting it at the Amherst 17-yard line. On the second play of the drive, senior Charlie Steinmetz ran the ball 15 yards to give the Rangers a 20-7 lead. 

For the rest of the quarter, the punters from each team got their work in. Amherst punted on their next three possessions, North Ridgeville on their next two. In the 4th quarter, instead of punting, each team turned the ball over on their first drives of the quarter. 

After a pair of Barnhart runs, resulting in no gain, Steinmetz got the ball on a misdirection and ran the ball 37 yards for a touchdown to give the Rangers a 26-7 lead. Amherst, on their next drive, battled to try to get back in it; however, Norris threw an interception to North Ridgeville’s Brian Strippy, and the game ended on three kneel-downs from Miller to end 26-7 in favor of the Rangers. 

Player of the Game: North Ridgeville’s Zackary Barnhart rushed the ball 20 times for 116 yards and a rushing TD. Barnhart was a battering ram for the Rangers, running hard all night and wearing out the Comets.